Herbal Desserts

[hazardnc]

Over twenty years ago, I made rose geranium pound cake using a recipe from the Hilltop Herb Farm in Texas. It was, at that time, a truly unique dessert, and everyone loved the subtle rose flavor.

Since then, I have pondered other ways to use herbs in desserts; perhaps a lemon verbena panna cotta with blueberry couli or pineaple sage creme brulee.

I have tarragon, thyme, verbena, pineapple sage and rose geranium in my garden as well as the usual suspects (basil, sage..) Any ideas?

Edited July 18, 2008 by hazardnc (log)

[gfron1]

My two favorites that I've made in recent years are sage ice cream sweetened with agave and a chocolate thyme olive oil cake. Both were huge hits.

[etalanian]

My favorite dessert herb is rosemary. It pairs perfectly with sweet flavors and is especially good with figs, orange, and lemon. (But don't stop there.) Basil makes a great sweet flavoring, and cilantro with lime can be used in many desserts.

When I was writing my Marshmallows book I included many savory herbed flavors; unfortunately, my publisher vanquished them from the book, much to my disappointment. Savory herbs are where it's at these days, IMHO.

Have fun!

Eileen

[ludja]

Rose geranium is also very nice infused in a pouring custard (creme anglaise). The flavor goes great with strawberries, blue and blackberries.

I recently made some lavender syrup with culinary lavender. I haven't done anything fancy with it dessert-wise yet, but we've been enjoying it at breakfast as a sweetner for chopped nectarines and blueberries.

[RuthWells]

Over twenty years ago, I made rose geranium pound cake using a recipe from the Hilltop Herb Farm in Texas.  It was, at that time, a truly unique dessert, and everyone loved the subtle rose flavor.

Since then, I have pondered other ways to use herbs in desserts; perhaps a lemon verbena panna cotta with blueberry couli or pineaple sage creme brulee.

I have tarragon, thyme, verbena, pineapple sage and rose geranium in my garden as well as the usual suspects (basil, sage..)  Any ideas?

←

I adore basil ice cream.

[hazardnc]

I love the idea of the creme anglaise flavored with rose geranium and other flavors. I found a recipe for tarragon ice cream, and given that basil has that anise-like flavor, that would be wonderful too.

Anyone care to share a recipe? To make infused marshmallows (I've made the vanilla marshmallow recipe from this site), what do you do? I can imagine all kinds of great applications for herb infused marshmallows!

One year, I made a wonderful blueberry-lavender jam....

[ermintrude]

Basil sorbet

Basic bavois

Lemon Thyme Ice Cream

Sage panacotta

To name a few

[skipper10]

My family loves Rosemary Creme Brulle and Lemon-Rosemary Sorbet with Campari, both from Patrick O'Connell's "The Inn at Little Washington Cookbook." Rosemary Creme Brulle is lots of fun to serve at a dinner party; everybody loves it, asks for seconds, but nobody can guess correctly what it is.

I also make lots and lots of recipes by Susan Belsinger, whose books introduced me to the joy of fresh herbs at a time when most of my friends were just starting to use dry herbs in their cooking.

[Abra]

I love pineapple sage. I like to infuse some leaves in a warm simple syrup, then use that to lightly sweeten a fruit salad. I add torn pineapple sage leaves to the salad, and sprinkle the beautiful flowers on top. It's a really summery treat.

[petite tête de chou]

Rose geranium is also very nice infused in a pouring custard (creme anglaise).  The flavor goes great with strawberries, blue and blackberries.

I recently made some lavender syrup with culinary lavender.  I haven't done anything fancy with it dessert-wise yet, but we've been enjoying it at breakfast as a sweetner for chopped nectarines and blueberries.

←

Lavender syrup soaked into lemon pound cake is very good. I imagine a sorbet of some sort would be good with the cake, too.

[teagal]

For the farmer's market that I'm selling stuff at I've done shortbread and butter cookies with lavendar or rosemary. They both sold well, the rosemary I had to offer samples of, people couldn't fathom that combo. I added a handful of each chopped lemon balm and lemon basil leaves to a very tender crumbed white cake recipe I made into cupcakes -that was very nice. Am gonna take some chopped mint and put in a brownie recipe next time.

[Tri2Cook]

Am gonna take some chopped mint and put in a brownie recipe next time.

←

We did that in college. Ummm... yeaaah... that's uhhh... mint.

[ludja]

For the farmer's market that I'm selling stuff at I've done shortbread and butter cookies with lavendar or rosemary.  They both sold well, the rosemary I had to offer samples of, people couldn't fathom that combo.  I added a handful of each chopped lemon balm and lemon basil leaves to a  very tender crumbed white cake recipe I made into cupcakes -that was very nice.  Am gonna take some chopped mint and put in a brownie recipe next time.

←

Rosemary can work well in many desserts. Here is a great recipe that Abra pointed out to us in one of her blogs: Cornmeal Cake with Rosemary Syrup and Blackberries

I've made it several times to great reviews.

[RuthWells]

I love pineapple sage.  I like to infuse some leaves in a warm simple syrup, then use that to lightly sweeten a fruit salad.  I add torn pineapple sage leaves to the salad, and sprinkle the beautiful flowers on top.  It's a really summery treat.

←

I snapped up a sage called "golden delicious" at our local farm stand last week and did an infused syrup with it. It's quite heady -- other than to flavor drinks, I haven't decided how to use it.

[mkayahara]

For the farmer's market that I'm selling stuff at I've done shortbread and butter cookies with lavendar or rosemary.  They both sold well, the rosemary I had to offer samples of, people couldn't fathom that combo.

←

Ooh! I love rosemary shortbread. I've also heard that rosemary and vanilla go well together.

[LoneSavant]

I love tarragon and dark chocolate-- my favorite use is in an infused ganache, used to fill a pasta frolla.

Also, as a quick dessert, chop up strawberries and/or peaches, toss them with a little lemon zest and some fresh basil, and dump it all over vanilla ice cream-- best summer sundaes EVER.

[reenicake]

thyme! good with berries and pineapple. Used to do a fabulous dessert when I still worked in restaurants that was a thyme meringue disc, white chocolate mousse, kirsch/pineapple/chopped thyme salad.

[David Israel]

I've made a bonbon with pineapple pate de fruit layered over basil ganache, which was a good combination. Another combination that Michael Recchiuti has in one of his chocolates is tarragon and grapefruit.

I second the thyme and berry combination, too. For example, I've made a blueberry cobbler with some thyme added to the blueberry mixture, which worked well (I'd think lemon thyme would be particularly good).

[Fibilou]

I made a bay scented custard once at college - a very adult taste which was really tasty

[bluechefk]

i really like doing vanilla bean with bay leaves - makes an especially nice gelato, but i've done creme brulee with these flavors, too.

apples & rosemary work well together - i think that lynne rossetto kaspar has a recipe for a apple & rosemary cake in one of her books - the splendid table, maybe?

all kinds of herbs are great for poaching fruits - esp. thyme & bay leaves, i think. i also like to infuse honey with different herbs, and then use it as a sauce, or to poach things like figs.

i've made a very light lavendar syrup to serve with a honey flan - very nice flavor combo.

lemon verbena is one of my favorites, too - have used that in creme brulee, ice cream and also panna cotta, to great effect. i think it would make a nice gelato, too - delicate but flavorful. oh, and basil ice cream is GREAT!

[LizD518]

I've made strawberry sorbet with pineapple mint that was fabulous - but not very unusual in terms of using a herb.

I had a dessert in a local restaurant that paired rosemary & pineapple that I thought was a good combination - but the execution needed to be improved apon. The rosemary pound cake was very dense & dry, and unfortunately, it was served very cold. If the cake had been allowed to come to room temp before serving it might have been much better. If I recall correctly, there was a pineapple rosemary simple syrup and a pineapple chutney that went with it - or something like that!